File photo: VCG

BEIJING, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- China's retail sales of consumer goods rose 7.5 percent year on year in August to 3.39 trillion yuan (479.78 billion U.S. dollars), the National Bureau of Statistics said Monday.

The pace was 0.1 percentage points lower than the previous month.

Sales of consumer goods, excluding automobiles, rose 9.3 percent year on year in August to 3.08 trillion yuan. The pace was 0.5 percentage points higher than the previous month.

Retail sales in urban areas surged 7.2 percent to 2.91 trillion yuan. Rural retail sales climbed 8.9 percent to 476.2 billion yuan.

In the first eight months, retail sales of consumer goods climbed 8.2 percent year on year to 26.22 trillion yuan. The pace was 0.1 percentage points lower than that in the first seven months.

Online sales surged 16.8 percent year on year to 6.44 trillion yuan in the first eight months, and the growth rate was similar to that in the first seven months.

Online sales of physical commodities surged 20.8 percent year on year to 5.07 trillion yuan, accounting for 19.4 percent of the total volume of consumer goods sales. The ratio was 2.1 percentage points higher than the same period last year.